Nearly one in five Londoners think over-50s are too old to do their jobs

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Edith Hancock

We'd love to know what Alan Sugar and Martin Sorrell make of this survey (Source: Getty)

Life begins at 50. Unless you work in London, in which case you'd better keep your head down and hope no one notices your age.

Because not only do professionals in our capital consider an "older worker" to be full decade younger than the national average perception, a sizeable number of people think once you hit this milestone age, you're no longer able to do your job.

That's the findings of a new survey from CV Library, which found that 36 per cent of Londoners put 50-year-olds into the "older worker" category, compared with 60-plus for the wider population.

And it may come as a surprise to City leaders such as WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell, Shard owner Irvine Sellar, celebrity businessman Lord Sugar and Barclays boss John McFarlane to hear that 17 per cent of Londoners think this is the point at which you should be put out to pasture. A further nine cent don’t believe that anyone over 50 makes a valuable contribution to UK businesses.

Around 40 per cent of London professionals think that people should be forced to retire at a certain age, with 21 per cent believing that age should be by 60.

Of course, this may be because central London is overrun with whipper-snappers: graduates account for 66 per cent of staff in the City and 61 per cent in Westminster.

CV Library managing director Lee Biggins said: “It’s concerning to see that London workers don’t value the contribution of older workers and even more worrying that they view someone as young as 50 as a mature worker.”

“It’s important that businesses do more to educate their staff on the value older workers can bring to help shift attitudes toward age in the workplace.”